BrooksCaptives&Cousinsshowstherolethatslaveryplayedintheblendingofpeoplesand

fusionofculturesincolonialNewMexico,anddemonstratesthatethnicandracialcategorieshistorians
usuallytreatastimelessandunquestioned(37)arealotlesssolidthanwemightthink.Afterreading
thisbook,historiansshouldnotspeakofslavery,orApaches,Navajos,andHispanos,astheyusedto.
InthisaccountoftheslavesystemintheSouthwestborderlandsduringthecolonialera,Brooks
bringstolightthatcaptivitycoulddirectdiplomaticrelationsamongNativepeoples,orbetweenNative
peoplesandEuropeans.UnlikeslaveryintheSoutheasterncolonies,theslavetradeintheSouthwest
hadlittletodowithlabor.Nativepeoplesprimarilyconceivedslaveryasawaytoenhancepowerand
prestige.Inthemasculineideologyofhonor,menlostorgainedhonorinthelossoracquisitionof
valuable properties: livestock, lands, or captive women and children. Correspondingly, a peoples
survivalanditsrelationswithothergroupsdependedonitsabilitytomanagematerialandhuman
resources.Slaveraidingkeptsocietiesdivided,whileexchangesofcaptivesofferedpossibilitiesfor
reconciliationandalliances.
Insocietiesorganizedaroundtheinstitutionsofhouseholdsandkinship,captivewomenand
childrenbecameanintegralpartofthehostcommunitythroughmarriageoradoption.Captivescould
eventuallygobacktotheiroriginalcommunityandcollaborateinestablishingtradeanddiplomatic
relationswiththeadoptiveone.Inthisway,borderlandcommunitiesofinterest( 159)emergedamong
peoplesotherwisedividedbyethnicityandtribalidentity.Brooksdevotessomepagestothegenzaros
as anexample of cultural mixing through slavery. These detribalized Indians acted as servants in
Spanishhouseholdsbutintimedevelopedaninternallygeneratedpositiveethnicidentity( 123).As

captivesbecamecousinsandviceversa,theyremodeledtheethnographicpanoramaoftheSouthwest
borderlands.
Brooks book covers a period of more than three centuries, going from the midsixteenth
centurytothesecondhalf ofthenineteenthcentury. The system ofcaptivity andkinshipthathe
describeslastedmorethananyEuropeanempireontheNorthAmericancontinent,unaffectedbythe
AmericanRevolutionandthebirthoftherepublicuntiltheUnitedStatesconqueredNewMexico.
Brooks study requires historians of the colonial Southwest to reevaluate paradigms of race and
exploitationbyprovingthat,whilesuchcategoriescanworkeffectivelyfortheanalysisofslaveryin
theSoutheasterncolonies,theyturnouttobeinsufficientwhendealingwiththecomplexandever
changingrealityoftheSouthwest.Captives&Cousinswillbecomeunavoidablereadingforscholars
andgraduatestudentsinthefieldsofcolonialhistory,genderhistory,andhistoryoftheNativesandof
slaveryinAmerica.